Today the US notched up a major success in its "war against terror". The Jordanian terrorist Al Zarqawi was killed in an air strike near Bagdad. With the exit of Al Zarqawi, it now is certain that a major threat to the existing Iraqi regime has been removed. It appears from initial reports that the entire leadership of the Al Qaeda in Iraqi has been removed in one fell blow. What are the implications of this development.
First, in the short run at least the Iraqi regime and its American backers can breathe easy. Zarqawi was the strategist behingd the Sunni Insurgency and with his death a major hurdle has certainly been claered.
Second, the fact that the Coalition had precise information about the meeting in which Zarqawim was to participate shows that the present Iraqi regime has penetrated the thick veil of secrecy and probably there are spies of th e regime olready in place. This development will certainly leadd to a lot of shake up in the ranks of the Insurgents and hence their capacity to strike will in the short run be reduced.
Third, there is every possibility that Zarqawi will be repalced by another equallly charismatic leader, but it is unlikely that he would be able to strike with such ease as the now dead Zarqawi.
The Insurgecy will be crippled by this event and there is no doubt that at long last the coalition has killed aknown terrorist and not inocent civilians as it did in Haditha.